Optus tax: Network’s owner Singtel faces scrutiny over $8.2 billion revenue and zero income tax paid

It had already been a tough fortnight for Optus and its owner, Singtel.

The disaster that was the failure of the Triple Zero network across Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory in mid-September was compounded by another much smaller outage near Wollongong a few days later.

Now, Singtel’s inability to pay income tax despite tens of billions of dollars in revenue over recent years has renewed attention both on the company and the corporate tax system.

Ever since then-treasurer Wayne Swan introduced the corporate tax transparency report 2013-14 (despite opposition from the business community at the time), it has shone a light into an area ripe for proper debate.

The annual release of the data on Thursday fell at exactly the wrong time for Singtel and its wholl